Jadeite, being the only one there who was able to transform and take on the form of a normal human woman, decided to go down to spend the year in Illinois. Being a powerful psychic being by nature, he knew exactly what the Cell of the other dimension was up to. And she would secretly watch him as he courted her parallel universe twin. She didn't know why the heck she was doing it, but it seemed to be the right thing for her to do.
For a few weeks now, Laura had been finding flowers, notes and odd little gifts stashed in strange places. She even received a heart made of reddish stone that looked as if it had been carved by human fingers. But that wasn't at all logical. Stone couldn't be shaped by a human's touch! She also sometimes felt a very strange presence that came around into the immediate area every so often. The presence felt like that of a very strong person who was different from all others, but she also felt that it meant no harm to anyone, least of all her. Whoever her mysterious suitor was, she trusted him not to hurt her or anyone else.
The days grew shorter and colder as summer turned to fall. In the depths of the night, Cell took to gently forcing open Laura's window and sneaking into her bed as she slept. He knew she took sleeping pills, so she wouldn't wake up and find him there. He truly enjoyed those nights, sleeping with his head against her shoulder and his arm over her. No matter how cold it got, he always made sure to come in late at night and leave early in the morning. And he made sure to leave the bed and the window like he'd found them. He left no clues to his presence or his actions save for one single simple thing. Laura had nightly dreams of having someone get in bed with her and sleep with her. The dreams were very pleasant and she enjoyed them. But why was she having those strange dreams?
Winter came and the temperature dropped well below normal. Cell made a makeshift shelter out of fallen branches and spent most of his time huddled inside it, trying in vain to keep out of the frigid wind. He still visited Laura, but he had stopped sneaking into her room. He didn't want her to have to feel the bitter cold. As the weather got colder and colder and the snow piled up higher and higher, he steadily got weaker and weaker. He felt that time was quickly running out for him. Despair took over his mind and he felt that he would soon betray the woman he secretly loved by dying. If only he could reveal himself to her! If only there were somewhere warm for him to hide out for the duration of the winter! But there was nothing at all. He could feel himself dying moment by moment, and with each moment his despair grew. His love for Laura would surely outlive him, for he was sure that time was definitely growing short. The end was swiftly coming for him. He was certain that he could count his remaining life span in terms of just a few days.
One cold, dark night, he hovered by her window and looked in on her as she slept. He could feel the delightful warmth that waited just on the other side of the glass, and that made the wind feel ever so much colder to him. She was soundly asleep and he smiled at the sight of her. He sighed sadly, and the warm air of his breath fogged the window and obscured his view of her. He reached out to wipe the fog from the glass and noticed that his hand was shaking. A thick layer of frost had gathered on his armor and he could barely feel anything anymore. He looked downward and saw that his entire body was now quivering spasmodically. "Oh no," he whispered in a soft, uncertain voice. Then he abruptly lost the strength he needed to hover, and he crashed down on the paved sidewalk below her second-story window. His armor made a loud clattering sound when he landed. The pain caused by hitting the ground brought him around just enough for him to be aware that he had to get up. He slowly stood up and then staggered drunkenly toward the woods. Barely conscious even as he walked onward, he stumbled and fell a few times, plunging his arms into the snow right up to his elbows. But still he pressed onward. He reached his makeshift shelter and collapsed before he could even enter it, quietly slipping into oblivion. His very last conscious thought was of Laura and of his great love for her.
Laura had skipped her sleeping pills that night, and so she heard the sounds outside her window. A loud clatter drew her attention. Springing to her window, she looked outside and saw a dark form stumbling toward the woods. Seeing the figure fall and then force itself to stand back up made her sure that the unknown person needed help. She jumped over her bed and tore into her closet, throwing on warm clothes, then silently charged downstairs and rapidly put on her coat and her boots. She also snatched a flashlight from a nearby shelf. Flinging the door open, she ran out into the night. Swinging the flashlight around to scan the area, she found tracks. She followed the tracks and found that they led into the woods. Not giving the matter a second thought, she entered the dark woods. An almost inaudible alien sound throbbed as a low pulse and lured her in ever closer to it.
Soon the beam of her flashlight shone on the form of a manlike creature. It lay face down in the snow, not moving. When she saw it, she knew that the sound she had been hearing was the sound of its breathing. Frost coated its entire body, but below that she could see hints of green and black. She rolled it onto its back and got a good look at its face. She was then able to identify it as a male. He looked awfully familiar, too… Pushing that thought from her mind, she decided to wake him up so she could get him into her house. Wasting no time, she began to slap him across the face. His head limply rolled to the left and then to the right as she struck him on the left cheek and then the right. She only stopped when the rhythm of his breathing changed and she heard a soft little moan from him. He began to shiver spasmodically, curling up around himself in a vain attempt to stay warm. She helped him up, supporting him with her own body, and slipped her coat over his shoulders. It was her opinion that he needed it more than she did at that moment. His shivering subsided slightly as the warm fabric touched his half-frozen body. He gave her a look of confused torment as she draped her scarf around his neck. His expression of pain and suffering strengthened her resolve to help him. She gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Come on, then. Let's get you somewhere warm." Barely conscious as he was, he only understood the tone of her voice. He repeated in a low, uncomprehending tone, "Somewhere…warm…?" She just nodded. "That's absolutely right," she said, "Warm."
Then she helped him to stand up and walk. She was almost unable to stand up with him leaning against her. He was very weak, so she had to support a significant percentage of his weight and he wasn't exactly light. She had to move rather slowly because he just couldn't handle a quicker pace without staggering and nearly losing his balance. A couple times he stumbled and they both nearly fell, but Laura managed to get him to try it again. Soon they were at the door to her house. She quietly opened the door wide and they slipped in the house. She realized that she didn't have to be very quiet about the whole deal because her family was out for the night. They would all arrive back home in the early morning. But quietness was a trait that she held dear to her, and so she entered the house as silently as a phantom. Barely pausing once inside, she helped him to climb the stairs to her room. Once they were up there, she let him lie down in her bed and then gently draped several downy blankets over his shivering form. She looked at his face and thought, God, he's so handsome. Then she noticed his eyes. They were halfway open in pure fatigue, and she noticed that they were an almost fluorescent shimmering coral color. He looked up at her and smiled faintly, and then whispered something inaudible as he lost consciousness and his body slowly relaxed. She said to him softly, "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. You'll see. Just rest." For a few relatively long minutes, she just looked at him. Then, finally, she whispered quietly, "Who are you, anyway?"
A short moment's thought made her remember the newspaper archive research she'd been doing for her college class on recent worldwide events. She'd been preparing a rather large essay on a very strange event that had occurred earlier in the year. On May 19, somewhere in Japan, a World Martial Arts Tournament had been held to decide the fate of the entire planet. The tournament had been created as a challenge by a strange creature that had referred to itself as Cell. On the day of the tournament, a small young woman had challenged Cell…and defeated him. Stranger still were the corroborating reports that the woman had actually transformed several times, that a double of Cell had appeared from out of nowhere and that the girl had even resurrected Cell after killing him. Now, if she recalled her information correctly, she had a pretty good picture of Cell from right before the tournament began, taken by a relatively daring news photographer via a zoom lens. Rummaging around through a largish pile of old newspapers that she'd collected for research material to use in her essay, she finally found the photograph that she had sought. Then she looked between the evil creature in the old picture and the unconscious inhuman being that now lay limp in her bed, halfway dead from the winter's bitter cold. They were exactly the same being. It was right then that she finally realized the truth. "Holy cow," she whispered, "I just rescued Cell?" The idea was rather startling, but not nearly as startling as the fact that she found him to be very handsome. She swore to help him, to see to his health until he had fully recovered. She quietly left her room and closed the door behind her so he could have privacy as she went to look in her first-aid handbook and find out how to properly treat someone who had nearly frozen to death.
She didn't take a look, so she didn't notice that Cell was already beginning to recover. He was no longer unconscious. Rather, he was merely asleep. He dreamed of Laura's face and of reassuring words spoken to him. Fragments of recent memories drifted through his dreams. He really didn't know what had happened to him. Was he alive? Was he dead? Where was he? He didn't understand what was going on, but he knew that he was safe.
Upon going downstairs, she noticed that the air was abnormally cold. That was strange, but she drove the thought from her mind. She opened the basement door-and came face to face with a masked burglar. "Well, well, well," the robber said coldly, "I was just going to rob this house, but now it looks like I get some action too." She broke out of her terrified paralysis as the man lunged at her. This just couldn't be happening to her. She wasn't exactly a religious girl by nature, but the situation was more than enough to make anyone call on God. "Lord Jesus, save me!" She barely managed to evade him, retreating across the room. Still he came after her. "Dear Christ, have mercy on me!" No one was there to hear her cries. "Help me!" Why did she continue to yell for help if there was no one who could respond to her cries? "Please help me!" She evaded the man's lunges, but he was quickly closing in on her. There was nowhere else to run or hide. "Oh God, have mercy!" Her worst case scenario came true as he seized her by the throat. She froze as his hand came down to grasp her pants. She couldn't believe that this was actually happening to her. He couldn't be planning to… "No, no, not that!" She felt a rush of cold air as both her pants and her underpants were torn away. Stark terror overwhelmed her. "Please!" Nausea rose in her stomach. "Please let me go!" He snarled in her face, "Shut up, you! Do you want to wake up the dead?" She just shook her head wildly, tears streaking her face as she cried out. "Help me! Save me! Lord, have mercy!" He viciously slapped her across the face to shut her up and then prepared to get right down to business with her.
Screams. They resonated in Cell's sleeping mind and dragged him out of oblivion. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that he lay in a room, in someone's bed. This was the first time he'd been warm since…he couldn't remember when he'd last been warm. The screams drew his attention once again, and this time he could recognize the voice. Laura! That simple knowledge gave him the strength that he needed to act. He tore the blankets off of him and leapt up to his feet. Practically tearing the door off of its hinges, he left her room and momentarily paused at the top of the stairs to assess the situation. The burglar was doing something unspeakably gross with his pants, but he hadn't hurt Laura yet. Cell then decided that he had to act on her behalf. Leaping right down the stairs in just a single bound and spreading his glossy black wings wide to make himself look bigger and more menacing, he yelled out in a loud, threatening snarl of a voice, "Leave her alone!"
The burglar looked up at the sound of the voice and promptly did a double take at the sight of a tall figure silhouetted by the faint light coming from the upstairs rooms. The burglar recovered from the shock and then growled at him, "So the handsome prince comes to his lady's rescue. Back off, boy, or I'll shoot you too!" He showed off his gun, but that didn't impress Cell. He'd faced torpedoes, artillery shells, cannons, tanks and even missiles, so the sight of one puny little pistol meant absolutely nothing to him. His voice was a low, threatening rumble as he said, "Release her and get out. Now." The burglar snickered at his threat and replied, "You're in no position to give orders, buddy. I'm the one with the gun, remember?" Cell just replied coldly, "Guns mean nothing to me. Do as I say and I might not hurt you…much." The burglar pointed the gun at Cell's chest. "I've got this aimed right at your heart," he said, "Hold still or I'll shoot you." The hybrid smirked, although the burglar didn't see it. His voice was smooth and mocking as he asked, "Do you know who I am?" The burglar replied in a sharp, sarcastic tone, "Yeah, I do. Some cocky little kid who thinks he can fool me with tricks and bravado." Cell laughed out loud at hearing that, and then said seriously, "I'll show you exactly what you're up against right now. But first, you're going to be coming along with me. Now." He almost seemed to wink out of existence as he used his incredible speed to his ultimate advantage. The burglar didn't even have a chance to know what hit him as Cell grabbed him and used Instant Transmission to take him outside. The burglar fell facedown in the snow, momentarily stunned. Cell used that extra time to drop down into a ready stance. The burglar slowly stood back up and said, "That's a pretty neat trick…for a kid." Then the moonlight illuminated his foe's utterly inhuman form just enough for him to see that he wasn't dealing with any normal kid. His jaw dropped. Cell smirked at him and said in a derogatory tone, "Well, are you ready for this?" Not really waiting for any sort of a response, he just let his aura flare up to its maximum brightness, illuminating the surrounding area as bright as if it were midday. The burglar, his night vision effectively shot, had to blink a few times before he could see his opponent. When he finally saw Cell, his eyes got big and he said, "You can't be Cell! He's dead!" The hybrid replied in a mocking tone, "Can't I?" Where before the man had done something with his pants, he now did something in his pants. Then Cell abruptly disappeared once again. The burglar looked around in confusion…then screamed like a frightened little girl as he was hauled up into the air at a furious speed. Holding his collar in one hand, Cell gave him a look of sheer rage and said, "Now do you believe me?" The burglar just nodded. Then Cell hauled him up to eye level and snarled in his face, "Let's get this straight: I could've torn you to shreds…snapped you in half…ripped your butt off and made you eat it! If I find you snooping around here again, there won't be enough left of you to fill a thimble! You got that?" To prove his point, he tossed the burglar toward the ground so far below, caught him just before he would have hit the ground like an overripe melon and swooped him right back up into the sky. He snarled again, "I said, you got that?" The terrified burglar screamed, "Yes! Yes, I do! Just don't kill me!" Cell sneered at him and then took the man for a high-speed ride, dropping him off right at the police station's doorstep.
Then he returned to the house as fast as he could. He walked inside, closing and locking the door behind him, and knelt by Laura. She was unconscious, but she was also largely unhurt. All she had were a few bruises and some bad memories. Wasting no more time, he picked her up in his arms and carried her back upstairs. The fact that she was so small truly amazed him. He laid her in her bed and draped the blankets over her. Having nightmares about her recent attack, she squirmed in bed and made peculiar little mewling sounds. Not quite knowing what else to do for her, he just climbed into bed beside her. Unconsciously sensing a warm, strong, unthreatening presence, she cuddled in closer to Cell. Thinking back on those summer nights long ago, Cell happily let himself fall asleep.
Laura awakened in the middle of the night, but she wasn't completely awake yet. Feeling the presence of the person who she was sharing her bed with; she turned in bed and laid a gentle hand on Cell's arm. His armor was perfectly warm, rather than icy cold as it had been before. Something hidden deep within her soul told her that his mind and body now burned with fully restored life. She smiled and murmured softly, "He's all right now." Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered to him ever so softly, "You are my dark angel…" For the first time in her entire life, she didn't cling to her favorite stuffed animal as she drifted back to sleep. Rather, she nestled up against Cell's side.
Early morning saw Cell leaving the house to return to his hideout in the forest. Laura raided the storeroom and her closet to give him several thick, downy quilts. Her family came and she told them of the thwarted robbery, but not of Cell. She had them believing that she had stopped the burglar. Set on edge by the previous night's encounter with the burglar and heartened by the knowledge that she had a protector, she returned to school the next day. Gym class saw her working out twice as hard as everyone else and her peers noticed that her confidence had skyrocketed. It was as if she had become a whole new person. She regaled her classmates with tales of the thwarted robbery and acted as if the whole deal were nothing more than a day's work for her. But, unbeknownst to her, the burglar whom Cell had thwarted attended her school. And he had many friends. He was plotting and planning, but he decided to wait until spring. Then her guard would be down.
The bus driver had missed her stop, so Laura got off the bus on an adjacent street and began to walk the few blocks that would take her home. She stopped in mid-step as a group of large boys surrounded her. They were obviously from the football squad; she could tell that much just by looking at them. And the relatively small fellow who led the lot of them was the burglar she had met before. He snickered at the sight of her and said, "Look what we have here. You have some nerve, taking credit for that freak's actions. But he isn't here now, and this time I have friends with me." He looked to his left and then to his right, and the other boys got ready for a fight the moment he looked their way. As he spoke his threats, Laura suddenly realized that she wasn't scared of them in the least. I feel different today. Thoughts of Cell drifted through her mind, and the thought of him energized her. I feel strong. She blinked, and, for a moment, she saw herself as him. It's not like before. Looking at her enemy, she smiled and said, "This time it won't go like before." Then he said simply, "You die. Now." In that same instant, she prayed silently. God… The boys slowly advanced on her, but she held her ground and showed them absolutely no fear. Grant me the power and strength of Cell… She could feel a wild sensation building within her. Just this once… For a moment, she imagined herself standing outside her body. Looking at herself, she could see a transparent silhouette of Cell superimposed on her image. It was then that her wish was granted. Something within her opened up, washing over her in waves. Feeling like a new person, she glanced down, then inhaled with a sharp hiss. As soon as it began, it filled my body to overflowing! For a moment, she wondered about what she was feeling. Is this the power of Cell? She startled the approaching boys by laughing out loud. A short second later, she attacked them.
Cell felt the release from his hiding place and took to the air to find its source. High in the air, watching the ground below with vision as keen as that of a hawk, she saw Laura engaged in battle against a group of big, burly boys. It seemed as if she danced as she attacked, pirouetting as she let fly with a rapid-fire series of punches and kicks. He felt a strange energy emanating from her. It felt like…his own? A moment's thought gave him the answer, telling him what had happened to her. She invoked a psychotic rage, fueling her anger with her own life energy? She has the same power as I do? That would explain why her attack pattern was like a more artistic version of his own. She had used her perceptions of him as a psychic template for reconstructing herself in order to fight them. He was astonished by how much she had changed in the moments since he had arrived. It was bizarre to see a small teenage girl like her acting as if she was just as strong as Cell. He snapped back to reality, pushing his swirling thoughts away and turning his attention back to Laura. The boys were running away in a frantic, disordered retreat. Laura stood in the middle of what had just been a battlefield; breathing heavily and watching them retreat. Moving as if she were consumed with an unnatural hunger, she prepared to chase them. Cell was astonished to hear her thoughts echoing within his mind. The power! She cackled insanely. More! She almost seemed to writhe in throes of what seemed to be pure pleasure. Give me more power! Her body convulsed, but she didn't seem to notice. Her joy just seemed to be increasing as she released more power. More power! She didn't seem to care that she was effectively destroying herself by calling forth that much power all at once. Release more energy! Her body convulsed again, more violently this time.
Cell figured that if he could hear her thoughts, she could hear his. He sent out, (No!) Then he dropped from the sky in order to stop her. I have to hold it back! He grabbed her and held her tight. I can't let her increase the power anymore! Doing all he could to stop her, he held her as she writhed. I can't let her release all this energy! He sent into her mind, hoping she would hear, (This power that fuels your life…I won't let you use it this way!) The only response he received was an incensed scream. He could feel her thoughts. Someone is trying to hold me back! She wouldn't give up trying to call forth the power. I just have to hold on for just a little longer. Once the power is released, I'll no longer need this body! Cell gasped in horror. I'll tear out of this body and destroy the world! He screamed in her mind, trying to force some sense into her with sheer decibel power,
(I WON'T LET YOU!)
It was then that he sensed the tiny mote of awareness that floated somewhere out beyond the raging storm of power. It was the true Laura. Where am I? She floated in a dark void, shut away from her body by the power that blazed through her. It's so dark and scary… A deep rumble startled her. Something keeps chasing me! I'm scared! Somebody help me! As faint as starlight, she felt a comfortingly familiar presence spring up deep within her mind. (Laura…) She turned and saw a bright light shining within the depths of her mind. She moved toward that light, not knowing or caring how she did it. She soon saw a small crystalline star and instinctively knew what it was. It's my self! She took it in her hands and held it to her. I'm so glad. I was so worried when I lost it. It felt as if a hole had been torn in me. The familiar presence hovered comfortingly close, looking at her with an expression of warm happiness. (It's part of you. That's right. It's you. You can't let it get away from you again. You can't go letting your power run rampant. Just close it away inside you and protect it.) Laura had curled up and effectively fallen asleep, having finally regained control over her body and her newly discovered power. Is that you, Mom? She felt as if she had gone back in time. She hadn't felt this way since she had been a small child. No, I'm not in Mom's arms. It's kind of hazy, and big and open. But I feel so safe. She barely felt it as a white hand touched her face. Cell took her in his arms and held her close. (It's all right. I'll protect you.) He felt the storm of power quieting and knew that things would soon be all right for her and for him, but the danger hadn't fully passed. Such power couldn't go without training; otherwise she would lose control again. (I won't let your inner darkness have your pure soul or your innate power.) A determined look settled on his face as a steadfast resolve took hold of him. (I'll save you.)
Back in the real world, Laura had lost consciousness. Cell still held her in his arms as his mind returned to reality. When he was fully back in the real world, he took to the air, carrying her. He took her to his hideout and wrapped her in a couple of the blankets she had given him. Sitting back against a tree stump, he rested and waited for her to wake up. Even though he had no idea how long it would take her to recover, he decided that he had plenty of time on his hands. There was no hurry. He could wait as long as was necessary.
His resolve to wait as long as necessary was rendered a moot point as Laura stirred slightly and gave a soft sigh. She awakened disoriented and removed the blankets and sat up. Looking around, she saw Cell leaning up against a tree while staring at her and was astonished to see him. She said, "You came back? I saved you…you saved me… I had figured you would have left after that. By the way, what happened back there? I had an attack. Did you beat those dorks up and save my butt again?" He replied, "I did nothing. I merely arrived on the scene after the fact. I didn't fight the attackers. You did." Her eyes went wide. She said, "I did? But how could I have done that? I've never fought before in my life and those guys were twice my size!" Cell laughed out loud. Then he said, "You really don't remember! You beat all of them single-handedly in minutes…using powers equal only to my own!" Laura practically fainted on the spot. She fairly yelped, "No way! I'm just a normal kid!" "No," he replied, "You're not." Unable to understand and accept that fact, she just got up and ran away. Cell winced and just watched her as she left.
She entered her house, only to be confronted by both of her parents. "We heard about what happened today," her father said, "You've discovered your hidden powers." Her mother continued, "It's time you knew the truth about your past and yourself. You may want to sit down for this." They all sat down. Her father said, "As you know, it took a long time for your mother to get pregnant and have Jimmy. But what you don't know is that we had the same trouble with you." Her mother continued, "We were both desperate for a child. Jimmy was pure luck, but, to have you, we had…help. We went to a doctor to see about in vitro fertilization. Back then, the idea was as radical as a trip to Mars. No one would help us. Then we found Doctor Gero. He promised to help us out…for a price. He would impregnate me, but only with an embryo of his choosing." Her father took it from there; "The embryo he gave us was the ultimate result of one of his secret projects. He intended to create a super being. Anyway, the embryo had undergone massive genetic alterations and could barely even be considered human anymore. He told us that the child would go through the first stages of its life looking like any normal human. But when it hit adulthood, it would…change. We were also told that the child would need regular doses of artificial chemicals in order to survive until it could make the change to its true form. We accepted the proposition anyway; figuring a child was a child no matter what species it was. And, nine months later, we had you." Her mother then said, "That's why you went in for yearly checkups even when they weren't supposed to be needed. And the antidepressants you take…are not really antidepressants." Her father continued, "And as for the attacks you've been having… The time of the change is near. Your body is beginning to feel it. Do you remember the attack you had that landed you in the hospital? We were sure that was the time of your awakening. But it was way too early. That's why you were hospitalized. Then the brain scan determined that it was only a false start." Literally floored by the news and the story, Laura asked, "Is there any more to the story? Do either of you have any idea of what I'll look like after that…change…is done?" Her mother fielded that question. She said, "When we went in to see him, Doctor Gero told us about another attempt he was making to create a super being. This one would be born as a test tube child, and it wouldn't be anything close to human. Not even at first. He showed us a picture of what it would probably look like when it was an adult. God in heaven, I'll never forget what I saw that day…" Her father continued, "Do you remember how we reacted to the news of the Cell Games? The picture Doctor Gero showed us all those years ago…it was of Cell. When the change comes, you will become like him." Laura gasped. Then she became angry. Feeling her face turning a deep red, she clenched her fists and hissed lowly, "So I'm not really your daughter… I'm an experiment? You mean I grew up loving you as my parents when I wasn't even of the same species as you? You mean I longed to be the same as other kids when I was destined to become something weirder than what I already was? I'm not even human?" Her temper shot through the roof and she let out an incensed scream. The ground began to shake violently beneath her feet. Her father gasped softly, "The change… It's beginning!" It was then that Laura bolted.
Her blood was literally boiling. Her skin felt like it was too tight and on the verge of splitting open. She felt as though her muscles and bones were writhing and twisting into new shapes. In pain, she sprinted as she had never sprinted before, tearing past the forest Cell called home and continuing on as if nothing could stop her. She ran between houses and across busy streets, stopping only when she reached a small stream by a forest and an open meadow. Then she fell to her knees, pushing away the pain for a moment. There was a soft, queer hiss as something passed through the air, then Cell stood beside her. She looked up at him and said, "I just learned the truth. I wasn't born…I was created. The man who created me is the man who created you! I'm not human! I only look human! And now…the metamorphosis is starting… Stay back! Who knows what'll happen?" As knocked for a loop by the information as she had been, he just obediently backed off.
Giving a cry of pain, she quickly stood up. Cell watched in pure revulsion at the sight of strange ripples moving underneath her skin. Her skin became a bloodless white as it was stretched to its maximum. Cell winced and was glad that he didn't need to eat as he heard the wet sounds of her skin tearing under the pressure of what lay beneath it. Peculiar bulges began to appear beneath her taut skin. Her shirt tore in half and she became a monstrous hunchback as something beneath the skin of her back pushed the skin upward. Her head elongated unnaturally, stretching her hair. Blood poured from the newly created rips, but not nearly as much as he would have expected. It was as if her skin was just a sheath covering…something else. Her hands came up, her fingertips digging deep into the tears in her skin. Cell gave a strangled cry of disgust as she began to peel the splitting skin away from whatever it was that lay beneath it. It tore away easily, as if she were merely taking off a mask. He caught flashes of a milk-white face streaked with a bright red. Slender bloodstained hands showed patches of flesh that was the same chalky color. Flexing her shoulders and leaning her head forward, she purposely created a huge tear in the flesh that ran along her spinal column. She brought her hands around and dug her fingertips into that rip. Then she pulled her hands forward with a savage brutality that startled Cell, and tore away the rest of her skin. Casting it aside like a worn out wet rag, she dove into the stream to wash the blood of her old self off of the body of her new self. After a few seconds, a totally different creature emerged from the water. Cell could see that it was a hybrid like him. But there were differences in its appearance. It was female, for one thing. And her armor was a beautiful deep blue, whereas his was a dark green. She was a bit shorter than he was, and she was quite slender. Her eyes were a coral color, but they were darker than his were, with bluish overtones. She had big glossy black insect wings and a high double crest, just like him. She climbed out of the water, looked up at him from a low crouch and said in Laura's voice, "What was that all about? I feel so weird. And tired…" Not waiting for a reply from him, she dropped down to the ground and immediately fell asleep. As she slept, Cell sat beside her and marveled at how much she had changed. She had changed drastically, and so had the situation that he was in.
After a few hours, Laura awakened. She stood up and looked at Cell. She said, "This is nuts. Everything got smaller!" He replied, "No, Laura, you just got bigger." Then she said, "I feel better than I ever have before. It's as if restrictions set on my body and soul have been lifted. My body feels…different…" Cell walked around behind her and laid a hand on her left wing. She shuddered at the touch, confused, then said; "This is even weirder! I feel you touching me, but I don't have any idea what you're touching!" He smiled and replied, "Simple, Laura. I'm touching your wing." Shrugging casually, she said, "That would explain it-What did you say?" She spun in place, turning to face him. Then she dropped to her knees by the stream and studied her reflection in the water.
After a moment, she gave a yelp and sat down hard. She whispered, "My dreams… All my dreams… Acceptance… Love and happiness… Gone… All of them gone…" Her shoulders shook as if she had started crying. Cell stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on her back. She looked up at him wordlessly, with tears in her eyes. He said gently, "That's not true, Laura. There is one who loves you still. There is one who is mad with love for you." Then he knelt beside her and hugged her. Laura felt absurd and she looked down to hide the fact that she was blushing. He said, "Before, you asked me why I came back. This is the answer." He gently touched her face. She looked up at him. He smiled and said, "You are incomparably beautiful. I love you. Laura, I am in love with you." Not bothering to reply verbally, she hugged him back. This time it was Cell's turn to blush.
Mutually unable to handle romance yet, they turned to other topics. Laura stammered, "I have power now. Can you teach me how to use it?" He replied, "I don't know how to teach you properly, but I know of someone who can. But, before we can go to him, I'll have to teach you how to fly." Laura said, "Cool! Tell me how! Show me!" Cell smiled at her and replied, "Come on, then. Let's get started, shall we?" She hopped up and down a couple times, totally excited by the prospect of being able to fly. Then the lesson began.
A few hours later, dawn had come and Laura was soaring in great circles high above the land, with Cell by her side. She laughed and cried; "I'm flying! Flying, you hear me?" Then she caught sight of her house in the distance. She turned to Cell and said, "I'm going to see my family. They deserve to know what I have become." He nodded and replied, "Okay. I'll wait for you." Nodding back at him, Laura turned in midair and swooped down toward the house that lay so far below them both. Fairly certain that this would be the last time she would go home, she returned to the house as fast as she could.
She landed lightly on the front porch and then surreptitiously opened the unlocked door without making so much as a single soft sound. Before she had left the place as a confused child. Now she entered without a clue as to what she had become. Her parents were at the dinner table, having breakfast. They started at the sight of the inhuman being that had just entered the house, looking at her deep blue armor, her glossy black wings, her high double crest and her coral eyes. After a long moment, Laura waved jauntily and said, "Hey, guys. Guess who?" Her mother whispered, "Laura?" She replied, "In the flesh, so to speak. This is what I have become. I'm moving out, guys." Not bothering to say another word to them, she just turned and walked upstairs. Turning left at the top of the stairs, she entered her little brother's room. He was still soundly asleep, curled up under the covers without anything showing, the fan still on to drown out any outside noise. She turned off the fan and waited for a reaction. There was none. Reaching out to the covered form, she shook the bed violently and fairly yelled at him, "Yo! Dingus!" Her brother reacted to her with equal violence, reaching out to smack her before he even opened his eyes. When he did open his eyes, he screamed at the sight of her and practically hit the ceiling. Laura started laughing hysterically at that. Jimmy fairly yelled at her, "What's so darn funny?" She replied, "Come down, you little twerp. It's just me." He said, "Laura?" She nodded to him and replied, "You had better let me explain." He settled down. She said, "Okay. Do you remember Cell?" He nodded. She continued, "Good. A scientist created him in an experiment. Now here's the kicker. He didn't create just Cell. He created a second creature that was just like Cell. This one was born looking like a normal human, but it wasn't a normal human. It would only look human while it was a kid. When it grew up, it would change to look like Cell." He cut in, "What's that got to do with anything?" She replied, "That second creature…was me." He gasped, then said, "I know you're trying to fool me. Everybody says the Cell Games were a trick and that's just a costume you're wearing." To prove his point, he walked up, grabbed her left wing and yanked. She yelped in pain and jerked it back. That made him pause. She scooped him up in her arms and then said, "I see I'm going to have to prove it to you."
Holding him with one arm, she reached out and unlatched the window. She opened it, and moved the screen aside. Laying her wings flat against her back, she climbed through the window with her little brother in her arms. She paused. "Hold on tight," she said. Then she jumped. Rather than hitting the ground like a brick like he had expected, Jimmy found that they were rising. When he dared to look, they were more than two hundred feet in the air. He looked at Laura's face and she said, "Now do you believe me?" He nodded breathlessly, then asked, "Now what?" She smiled, looked away and said, "I'm leaving, Jim. I'm going to see if I can find someone who can teach me how to control the power I now have." She took him back to his room and closed the window from the outside. Waving to Jimmy, she took off into the sky. He just watched her fly away.
She found Cell, who had taken to chasing clouds to keep himself occupied as he waited for her. He said, "How'd it go?" She replied, "Pretty well. I said my farewells and all. Where do we go from here?" He said, "We will go to Japan!" Turning side by side, they swerved in midair and began to head due west. As they flew onward through the morning sky, the sun at their backs, she said, "Cell, I've been doing some major thinking. I need a new name to call myself by. I'm not really Laura anymore. I just can't be her right now. She was a human. I'm not a human. So I need a new name for myself. And I think I have one. I'm as hard to catch as a shadow is and I'm so fast I look like just a flash of color to people who see me. Put those together and you get my name…Shadowflash!" Cell smiled. She had accepted her new identity and what she had become. She just smiled right back at him, accepting his love for her and adding her love for him to the mixture.
Far away but not too far away, Jadeite sensed this turn of events and smiled. Her parallel universe twin had found love, power and answers for the questions that she had been asking all her life. But the year would be over in just a few days. It was nearly time for them to try to do the dimensional hop that would hopefully bring them all back to their home dimension. She decided to leave the area right away. If she left during the night, no one would notice her as she flew off in her hybrid form. Shifting into her true form, she quickly leapt into the air and flew away just as fast as she could possibly manage to go.
The crew was waiting at the plateau, anxious for the Saiyans, hybrids and Mews to come. Goku looked upward and practically jumped right out of his boots at the sight of a pair of hybrids who were coming in for a landing. One of them was Cell. The other one, a slender little female with deep blue armor, he didn't know. They both walked up closer to him. The female seemed to be rather shy, but Cell just stepped right up to him. Gesturing toward her, he said, "Goku, this girl is named Shadowflash. Shadowflash, I want you to meet Goku." He turned to face Goku completely and then proceeded to tell him the origin story that she had told him earlier. After a few relatively long minutes, he finished up, "…So basically she's been a hybrid for less than a full day. She needs to learn to control her powers. I was hoping you could teach her how to do that." Goku stepped up a little bit closer to look Shadowflash over and suddenly found that he was apologizing to her profusely when she blushed furiously and went to hide behind Cell. Then he voiced his acceptance of her as a student. He would indeed teach her to use her powers properly.
It was right then that Jadeite and the others arrived on the scene. Shadowflash looked at the female hybrid that was leading the newcomers and said to Cell, "Do you know her? She looks awfully familiar to me for some reason." Cell smiled and replied, "That's for a good reason. Shadowflash…she's you." She asked, "What the heck do you mean? I'm me!" He answered, "She's from a parallel universe. Do you remember those rumors you heard about a strange girl who defeated me? She was that strange girl. Her name is Jadeite." Almost as if he had called her down from the air, Jadeite landed beside the two of them. She turned to face Shadowflash and quipped, "It's a pleasure to meet me." It didn't take long for Cell and Shadowflash to figure out that Jadeite already knew all about how Shadowflash had become a hybrid. Despite that, they chatted for a while. After a few minutes of that, Jadeite said, "I have to get going. We're all heading home."
Soon all of the Saiyans and hybrids stood together in a group on the high plateau where the Cell Games had taken place. The crew was all there too. They too wanted to get back to their home dimension. The crew of the other dimension was there to see the lot of them off. They all said their farewells and thusly prepared to part ways for all time. Each of them put hands on the shoulders of two others and concentrated, focusing their powers on creating a dimensional rift that would hopefully transport the lot of them back home. Then the Mews came down to sit on their shoulders, two per person, and concentrated as well. A tremendous rift made of pure white light opened in the clear blue sky that stretched into infinite vastness so far above them. Through it could be seen a different smoky gray sky. The crew of the other dimension watched in pure awe as the huge group of travelers rose up into the air and entered the rift. Then it sealed up behind them.
For a few weeks now, Laura had been finding flowers, notes and odd little gifts stashed in strange places. She even received a heart made of reddish stone that looked as if it had been carved by human fingers. But that wasn't at all logical. Stone couldn't be shaped by a human's touch! She also sometimes felt a very strange presence that came around into the immediate area every so often. The presence felt like that of a very strong person who was different from all others, but she also felt that it meant no harm to anyone, least of all her. Whoever her mysterious suitor was, she trusted him not to hurt her or anyone else.
The days grew shorter and colder as summer turned to fall. In the depths of the night, Cell took to gently forcing open Laura's window and sneaking into her bed as she slept. He knew she took sleeping pills, so she wouldn't wake up and find him there. He truly enjoyed those nights, sleeping with his head against her shoulder and his arm over her. No matter how cold it got, he always made sure to come in late at night and leave early in the morning. And he made sure to leave the bed and the window like he'd found them. He left no clues to his presence or his actions save for one single simple thing. Laura had nightly dreams of having someone get in bed with her and sleep with her. The dreams were very pleasant and she enjoyed them. But why was she having those strange dreams?
Winter came and the temperature dropped well below normal. Cell made a makeshift shelter out of fallen branches and spent most of his time huddled inside it, trying in vain to keep out of the frigid wind. He still visited Laura, but he had stopped sneaking into her room. He didn't want her to have to feel the bitter cold. As the weather got colder and colder and the snow piled up higher and higher, he steadily got weaker and weaker. He felt that time was quickly running out for him. Despair took over his mind and he felt that he would soon betray the woman he secretly loved by dying. If only he could reveal himself to her! If only there were somewhere warm for him to hide out for the duration of the winter! But there was nothing at all. He could feel himself dying moment by moment, and with each moment his despair grew. His love for Laura would surely outlive him, for he was sure that time was definitely growing short. The end was swiftly coming for him. He was certain that he could count his remaining life span in terms of just a few days.
One cold, dark night, he hovered by her window and looked in on her as she slept. He could feel the delightful warmth that waited just on the other side of the glass, and that made the wind feel ever so much colder to him. She was soundly asleep and he smiled at the sight of her. He sighed sadly, and the warm air of his breath fogged the window and obscured his view of her. He reached out to wipe the fog from the glass and noticed that his hand was shaking. A thick layer of frost had gathered on his armor and he could barely feel anything anymore. He looked downward and saw that his entire body was now quivering spasmodically. "Oh no," he whispered in a soft, uncertain voice. Then he abruptly lost the strength he needed to hover, and he crashed down on the paved sidewalk below her second-story window. His armor made a loud clattering sound when he landed. The pain caused by hitting the ground brought him around just enough for him to be aware that he had to get up. He slowly stood up and then staggered drunkenly toward the woods. Barely conscious even as he walked onward, he stumbled and fell a few times, plunging his arms into the snow right up to his elbows. But still he pressed onward. He reached his makeshift shelter and collapsed before he could even enter it, quietly slipping into oblivion. His very last conscious thought was of Laura and of his great love for her.
Laura had skipped her sleeping pills that night, and so she heard the sounds outside her window. A loud clatter drew her attention. Springing to her window, she looked outside and saw a dark form stumbling toward the woods. Seeing the figure fall and then force itself to stand back up made her sure that the unknown person needed help. She jumped over her bed and tore into her closet, throwing on warm clothes, then silently charged downstairs and rapidly put on her coat and her boots. She also snatched a flashlight from a nearby shelf. Flinging the door open, she ran out into the night. Swinging the flashlight around to scan the area, she found tracks. She followed the tracks and found that they led into the woods. Not giving the matter a second thought, she entered the dark woods. An almost inaudible alien sound throbbed as a low pulse and lured her in ever closer to it.
Soon the beam of her flashlight shone on the form of a manlike creature. It lay face down in the snow, not moving. When she saw it, she knew that the sound she had been hearing was the sound of its breathing. Frost coated its entire body, but below that she could see hints of green and black. She rolled it onto its back and got a good look at its face. She was then able to identify it as a male. He looked awfully familiar, too… Pushing that thought from her mind, she decided to wake him up so she could get him into her house. Wasting no time, she began to slap him across the face. His head limply rolled to the left and then to the right as she struck him on the left cheek and then the right. She only stopped when the rhythm of his breathing changed and she heard a soft little moan from him. He began to shiver spasmodically, curling up around himself in a vain attempt to stay warm. She helped him up, supporting him with her own body, and slipped her coat over his shoulders. It was her opinion that he needed it more than she did at that moment. His shivering subsided slightly as the warm fabric touched his half-frozen body. He gave her a look of confused torment as she draped her scarf around his neck. His expression of pain and suffering strengthened her resolve to help him. She gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Come on, then. Let's get you somewhere warm." Barely conscious as he was, he only understood the tone of her voice. He repeated in a low, uncomprehending tone, "Somewhere…warm…?" She just nodded. "That's absolutely right," she said, "Warm."
Then she helped him to stand up and walk. She was almost unable to stand up with him leaning against her. He was very weak, so she had to support a significant percentage of his weight and he wasn't exactly light. She had to move rather slowly because he just couldn't handle a quicker pace without staggering and nearly losing his balance. A couple times he stumbled and they both nearly fell, but Laura managed to get him to try it again. Soon they were at the door to her house. She quietly opened the door wide and they slipped in the house. She realized that she didn't have to be very quiet about the whole deal because her family was out for the night. They would all arrive back home in the early morning. But quietness was a trait that she held dear to her, and so she entered the house as silently as a phantom. Barely pausing once inside, she helped him to climb the stairs to her room. Once they were up there, she let him lie down in her bed and then gently draped several downy blankets over his shivering form. She looked at his face and thought, God, he's so handsome. Then she noticed his eyes. They were halfway open in pure fatigue, and she noticed that they were an almost fluorescent shimmering coral color. He looked up at her and smiled faintly, and then whispered something inaudible as he lost consciousness and his body slowly relaxed. She said to him softly, "Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. You'll see. Just rest." For a few relatively long minutes, she just looked at him. Then, finally, she whispered quietly, "Who are you, anyway?"
A short moment's thought made her remember the newspaper archive research she'd been doing for her college class on recent worldwide events. She'd been preparing a rather large essay on a very strange event that had occurred earlier in the year. On May 19, somewhere in Japan, a World Martial Arts Tournament had been held to decide the fate of the entire planet. The tournament had been created as a challenge by a strange creature that had referred to itself as Cell. On the day of the tournament, a small young woman had challenged Cell…and defeated him. Stranger still were the corroborating reports that the woman had actually transformed several times, that a double of Cell had appeared from out of nowhere and that the girl had even resurrected Cell after killing him. Now, if she recalled her information correctly, she had a pretty good picture of Cell from right before the tournament began, taken by a relatively daring news photographer via a zoom lens. Rummaging around through a largish pile of old newspapers that she'd collected for research material to use in her essay, she finally found the photograph that she had sought. Then she looked between the evil creature in the old picture and the unconscious inhuman being that now lay limp in her bed, halfway dead from the winter's bitter cold. They were exactly the same being. It was right then that she finally realized the truth. "Holy cow," she whispered, "I just rescued Cell?" The idea was rather startling, but not nearly as startling as the fact that she found him to be very handsome. She swore to help him, to see to his health until he had fully recovered. She quietly left her room and closed the door behind her so he could have privacy as she went to look in her first-aid handbook and find out how to properly treat someone who had nearly frozen to death.
She didn't take a look, so she didn't notice that Cell was already beginning to recover. He was no longer unconscious. Rather, he was merely asleep. He dreamed of Laura's face and of reassuring words spoken to him. Fragments of recent memories drifted through his dreams. He really didn't know what had happened to him. Was he alive? Was he dead? Where was he? He didn't understand what was going on, but he knew that he was safe.
Upon going downstairs, she noticed that the air was abnormally cold. That was strange, but she drove the thought from her mind. She opened the basement door-and came face to face with a masked burglar. "Well, well, well," the robber said coldly, "I was just going to rob this house, but now it looks like I get some action too." She broke out of her terrified paralysis as the man lunged at her. This just couldn't be happening to her. She wasn't exactly a religious girl by nature, but the situation was more than enough to make anyone call on God. "Lord Jesus, save me!" She barely managed to evade him, retreating across the room. Still he came after her. "Dear Christ, have mercy on me!" No one was there to hear her cries. "Help me!" Why did she continue to yell for help if there was no one who could respond to her cries? "Please help me!" She evaded the man's lunges, but he was quickly closing in on her. There was nowhere else to run or hide. "Oh God, have mercy!" Her worst case scenario came true as he seized her by the throat. She froze as his hand came down to grasp her pants. She couldn't believe that this was actually happening to her. He couldn't be planning to… "No, no, not that!" She felt a rush of cold air as both her pants and her underpants were torn away. Stark terror overwhelmed her. "Please!" Nausea rose in her stomach. "Please let me go!" He snarled in her face, "Shut up, you! Do you want to wake up the dead?" She just shook her head wildly, tears streaking her face as she cried out. "Help me! Save me! Lord, have mercy!" He viciously slapped her across the face to shut her up and then prepared to get right down to business with her.
Screams. They resonated in Cell's sleeping mind and dragged him out of oblivion. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that he lay in a room, in someone's bed. This was the first time he'd been warm since…he couldn't remember when he'd last been warm. The screams drew his attention once again, and this time he could recognize the voice. Laura! That simple knowledge gave him the strength that he needed to act. He tore the blankets off of him and leapt up to his feet. Practically tearing the door off of its hinges, he left her room and momentarily paused at the top of the stairs to assess the situation. The burglar was doing something unspeakably gross with his pants, but he hadn't hurt Laura yet. Cell then decided that he had to act on her behalf. Leaping right down the stairs in just a single bound and spreading his glossy black wings wide to make himself look bigger and more menacing, he yelled out in a loud, threatening snarl of a voice, "Leave her alone!"
The burglar looked up at the sound of the voice and promptly did a double take at the sight of a tall figure silhouetted by the faint light coming from the upstairs rooms. The burglar recovered from the shock and then growled at him, "So the handsome prince comes to his lady's rescue. Back off, boy, or I'll shoot you too!" He showed off his gun, but that didn't impress Cell. He'd faced torpedoes, artillery shells, cannons, tanks and even missiles, so the sight of one puny little pistol meant absolutely nothing to him. His voice was a low, threatening rumble as he said, "Release her and get out. Now." The burglar snickered at his threat and replied, "You're in no position to give orders, buddy. I'm the one with the gun, remember?" Cell just replied coldly, "Guns mean nothing to me. Do as I say and I might not hurt you…much." The burglar pointed the gun at Cell's chest. "I've got this aimed right at your heart," he said, "Hold still or I'll shoot you." The hybrid smirked, although the burglar didn't see it. His voice was smooth and mocking as he asked, "Do you know who I am?" The burglar replied in a sharp, sarcastic tone, "Yeah, I do. Some cocky little kid who thinks he can fool me with tricks and bravado." Cell laughed out loud at hearing that, and then said seriously, "I'll show you exactly what you're up against right now. But first, you're going to be coming along with me. Now." He almost seemed to wink out of existence as he used his incredible speed to his ultimate advantage. The burglar didn't even have a chance to know what hit him as Cell grabbed him and used Instant Transmission to take him outside. The burglar fell facedown in the snow, momentarily stunned. Cell used that extra time to drop down into a ready stance. The burglar slowly stood back up and said, "That's a pretty neat trick…for a kid." Then the moonlight illuminated his foe's utterly inhuman form just enough for him to see that he wasn't dealing with any normal kid. His jaw dropped. Cell smirked at him and said in a derogatory tone, "Well, are you ready for this?" Not really waiting for any sort of a response, he just let his aura flare up to its maximum brightness, illuminating the surrounding area as bright as if it were midday. The burglar, his night vision effectively shot, had to blink a few times before he could see his opponent. When he finally saw Cell, his eyes got big and he said, "You can't be Cell! He's dead!" The hybrid replied in a mocking tone, "Can't I?" Where before the man had done something with his pants, he now did something in his pants. Then Cell abruptly disappeared once again. The burglar looked around in confusion…then screamed like a frightened little girl as he was hauled up into the air at a furious speed. Holding his collar in one hand, Cell gave him a look of sheer rage and said, "Now do you believe me?" The burglar just nodded. Then Cell hauled him up to eye level and snarled in his face, "Let's get this straight: I could've torn you to shreds…snapped you in half…ripped your butt off and made you eat it! If I find you snooping around here again, there won't be enough left of you to fill a thimble! You got that?" To prove his point, he tossed the burglar toward the ground so far below, caught him just before he would have hit the ground like an overripe melon and swooped him right back up into the sky. He snarled again, "I said, you got that?" The terrified burglar screamed, "Yes! Yes, I do! Just don't kill me!" Cell sneered at him and then took the man for a high-speed ride, dropping him off right at the police station's doorstep.
Then he returned to the house as fast as he could. He walked inside, closing and locking the door behind him, and knelt by Laura. She was unconscious, but she was also largely unhurt. All she had were a few bruises and some bad memories. Wasting no more time, he picked her up in his arms and carried her back upstairs. The fact that she was so small truly amazed him. He laid her in her bed and draped the blankets over her. Having nightmares about her recent attack, she squirmed in bed and made peculiar little mewling sounds. Not quite knowing what else to do for her, he just climbed into bed beside her. Unconsciously sensing a warm, strong, unthreatening presence, she cuddled in closer to Cell. Thinking back on those summer nights long ago, Cell happily let himself fall asleep.
Laura awakened in the middle of the night, but she wasn't completely awake yet. Feeling the presence of the person who she was sharing her bed with; she turned in bed and laid a gentle hand on Cell's arm. His armor was perfectly warm, rather than icy cold as it had been before. Something hidden deep within her soul told her that his mind and body now burned with fully restored life. She smiled and murmured softly, "He's all right now." Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered to him ever so softly, "You are my dark angel…" For the first time in her entire life, she didn't cling to her favorite stuffed animal as she drifted back to sleep. Rather, she nestled up against Cell's side.
Early morning saw Cell leaving the house to return to his hideout in the forest. Laura raided the storeroom and her closet to give him several thick, downy quilts. Her family came and she told them of the thwarted robbery, but not of Cell. She had them believing that she had stopped the burglar. Set on edge by the previous night's encounter with the burglar and heartened by the knowledge that she had a protector, she returned to school the next day. Gym class saw her working out twice as hard as everyone else and her peers noticed that her confidence had skyrocketed. It was as if she had become a whole new person. She regaled her classmates with tales of the thwarted robbery and acted as if the whole deal were nothing more than a day's work for her. But, unbeknownst to her, the burglar whom Cell had thwarted attended her school. And he had many friends. He was plotting and planning, but he decided to wait until spring. Then her guard would be down.
The bus driver had missed her stop, so Laura got off the bus on an adjacent street and began to walk the few blocks that would take her home. She stopped in mid-step as a group of large boys surrounded her. They were obviously from the football squad; she could tell that much just by looking at them. And the relatively small fellow who led the lot of them was the burglar she had met before. He snickered at the sight of her and said, "Look what we have here. You have some nerve, taking credit for that freak's actions. But he isn't here now, and this time I have friends with me." He looked to his left and then to his right, and the other boys got ready for a fight the moment he looked their way. As he spoke his threats, Laura suddenly realized that she wasn't scared of them in the least. I feel different today. Thoughts of Cell drifted through her mind, and the thought of him energized her. I feel strong. She blinked, and, for a moment, she saw herself as him. It's not like before. Looking at her enemy, she smiled and said, "This time it won't go like before." Then he said simply, "You die. Now." In that same instant, she prayed silently. God… The boys slowly advanced on her, but she held her ground and showed them absolutely no fear. Grant me the power and strength of Cell… She could feel a wild sensation building within her. Just this once… For a moment, she imagined herself standing outside her body. Looking at herself, she could see a transparent silhouette of Cell superimposed on her image. It was then that her wish was granted. Something within her opened up, washing over her in waves. Feeling like a new person, she glanced down, then inhaled with a sharp hiss. As soon as it began, it filled my body to overflowing! For a moment, she wondered about what she was feeling. Is this the power of Cell? She startled the approaching boys by laughing out loud. A short second later, she attacked them.
Cell felt the release from his hiding place and took to the air to find its source. High in the air, watching the ground below with vision as keen as that of a hawk, she saw Laura engaged in battle against a group of big, burly boys. It seemed as if she danced as she attacked, pirouetting as she let fly with a rapid-fire series of punches and kicks. He felt a strange energy emanating from her. It felt like…his own? A moment's thought gave him the answer, telling him what had happened to her. She invoked a psychotic rage, fueling her anger with her own life energy? She has the same power as I do? That would explain why her attack pattern was like a more artistic version of his own. She had used her perceptions of him as a psychic template for reconstructing herself in order to fight them. He was astonished by how much she had changed in the moments since he had arrived. It was bizarre to see a small teenage girl like her acting as if she was just as strong as Cell. He snapped back to reality, pushing his swirling thoughts away and turning his attention back to Laura. The boys were running away in a frantic, disordered retreat. Laura stood in the middle of what had just been a battlefield; breathing heavily and watching them retreat. Moving as if she were consumed with an unnatural hunger, she prepared to chase them. Cell was astonished to hear her thoughts echoing within his mind. The power! She cackled insanely. More! She almost seemed to writhe in throes of what seemed to be pure pleasure. Give me more power! Her body convulsed, but she didn't seem to notice. Her joy just seemed to be increasing as she released more power. More power! She didn't seem to care that she was effectively destroying herself by calling forth that much power all at once. Release more energy! Her body convulsed again, more violently this time.
Cell figured that if he could hear her thoughts, she could hear his. He sent out, (No!) Then he dropped from the sky in order to stop her. I have to hold it back! He grabbed her and held her tight. I can't let her increase the power anymore! Doing all he could to stop her, he held her as she writhed. I can't let her release all this energy! He sent into her mind, hoping she would hear, (This power that fuels your life…I won't let you use it this way!) The only response he received was an incensed scream. He could feel her thoughts. Someone is trying to hold me back! She wouldn't give up trying to call forth the power. I just have to hold on for just a little longer. Once the power is released, I'll no longer need this body! Cell gasped in horror. I'll tear out of this body and destroy the world! He screamed in her mind, trying to force some sense into her with sheer decibel power,
(I WON'T LET YOU!)
It was then that he sensed the tiny mote of awareness that floated somewhere out beyond the raging storm of power. It was the true Laura. Where am I? She floated in a dark void, shut away from her body by the power that blazed through her. It's so dark and scary… A deep rumble startled her. Something keeps chasing me! I'm scared! Somebody help me! As faint as starlight, she felt a comfortingly familiar presence spring up deep within her mind. (Laura…) She turned and saw a bright light shining within the depths of her mind. She moved toward that light, not knowing or caring how she did it. She soon saw a small crystalline star and instinctively knew what it was. It's my self! She took it in her hands and held it to her. I'm so glad. I was so worried when I lost it. It felt as if a hole had been torn in me. The familiar presence hovered comfortingly close, looking at her with an expression of warm happiness. (It's part of you. That's right. It's you. You can't let it get away from you again. You can't go letting your power run rampant. Just close it away inside you and protect it.) Laura had curled up and effectively fallen asleep, having finally regained control over her body and her newly discovered power. Is that you, Mom? She felt as if she had gone back in time. She hadn't felt this way since she had been a small child. No, I'm not in Mom's arms. It's kind of hazy, and big and open. But I feel so safe. She barely felt it as a white hand touched her face. Cell took her in his arms and held her close. (It's all right. I'll protect you.) He felt the storm of power quieting and knew that things would soon be all right for her and for him, but the danger hadn't fully passed. Such power couldn't go without training; otherwise she would lose control again. (I won't let your inner darkness have your pure soul or your innate power.) A determined look settled on his face as a steadfast resolve took hold of him. (I'll save you.)
Back in the real world, Laura had lost consciousness. Cell still held her in his arms as his mind returned to reality. When he was fully back in the real world, he took to the air, carrying her. He took her to his hideout and wrapped her in a couple of the blankets she had given him. Sitting back against a tree stump, he rested and waited for her to wake up. Even though he had no idea how long it would take her to recover, he decided that he had plenty of time on his hands. There was no hurry. He could wait as long as was necessary.
His resolve to wait as long as necessary was rendered a moot point as Laura stirred slightly and gave a soft sigh. She awakened disoriented and removed the blankets and sat up. Looking around, she saw Cell leaning up against a tree while staring at her and was astonished to see him. She said, "You came back? I saved you…you saved me… I had figured you would have left after that. By the way, what happened back there? I had an attack. Did you beat those dorks up and save my butt again?" He replied, "I did nothing. I merely arrived on the scene after the fact. I didn't fight the attackers. You did." Her eyes went wide. She said, "I did? But how could I have done that? I've never fought before in my life and those guys were twice my size!" Cell laughed out loud. Then he said, "You really don't remember! You beat all of them single-handedly in minutes…using powers equal only to my own!" Laura practically fainted on the spot. She fairly yelped, "No way! I'm just a normal kid!" "No," he replied, "You're not." Unable to understand and accept that fact, she just got up and ran away. Cell winced and just watched her as she left.
She entered her house, only to be confronted by both of her parents. "We heard about what happened today," her father said, "You've discovered your hidden powers." Her mother continued, "It's time you knew the truth about your past and yourself. You may want to sit down for this." They all sat down. Her father said, "As you know, it took a long time for your mother to get pregnant and have Jimmy. But what you don't know is that we had the same trouble with you." Her mother continued, "We were both desperate for a child. Jimmy was pure luck, but, to have you, we had…help. We went to a doctor to see about in vitro fertilization. Back then, the idea was as radical as a trip to Mars. No one would help us. Then we found Doctor Gero. He promised to help us out…for a price. He would impregnate me, but only with an embryo of his choosing." Her father took it from there; "The embryo he gave us was the ultimate result of one of his secret projects. He intended to create a super being. Anyway, the embryo had undergone massive genetic alterations and could barely even be considered human anymore. He told us that the child would go through the first stages of its life looking like any normal human. But when it hit adulthood, it would…change. We were also told that the child would need regular doses of artificial chemicals in order to survive until it could make the change to its true form. We accepted the proposition anyway; figuring a child was a child no matter what species it was. And, nine months later, we had you." Her mother then said, "That's why you went in for yearly checkups even when they weren't supposed to be needed. And the antidepressants you take…are not really antidepressants." Her father continued, "And as for the attacks you've been having… The time of the change is near. Your body is beginning to feel it. Do you remember the attack you had that landed you in the hospital? We were sure that was the time of your awakening. But it was way too early. That's why you were hospitalized. Then the brain scan determined that it was only a false start." Literally floored by the news and the story, Laura asked, "Is there any more to the story? Do either of you have any idea of what I'll look like after that…change…is done?" Her mother fielded that question. She said, "When we went in to see him, Doctor Gero told us about another attempt he was making to create a super being. This one would be born as a test tube child, and it wouldn't be anything close to human. Not even at first. He showed us a picture of what it would probably look like when it was an adult. God in heaven, I'll never forget what I saw that day…" Her father continued, "Do you remember how we reacted to the news of the Cell Games? The picture Doctor Gero showed us all those years ago…it was of Cell. When the change comes, you will become like him." Laura gasped. Then she became angry. Feeling her face turning a deep red, she clenched her fists and hissed lowly, "So I'm not really your daughter… I'm an experiment? You mean I grew up loving you as my parents when I wasn't even of the same species as you? You mean I longed to be the same as other kids when I was destined to become something weirder than what I already was? I'm not even human?" Her temper shot through the roof and she let out an incensed scream. The ground began to shake violently beneath her feet. Her father gasped softly, "The change… It's beginning!" It was then that Laura bolted.
Her blood was literally boiling. Her skin felt like it was too tight and on the verge of splitting open. She felt as though her muscles and bones were writhing and twisting into new shapes. In pain, she sprinted as she had never sprinted before, tearing past the forest Cell called home and continuing on as if nothing could stop her. She ran between houses and across busy streets, stopping only when she reached a small stream by a forest and an open meadow. Then she fell to her knees, pushing away the pain for a moment. There was a soft, queer hiss as something passed through the air, then Cell stood beside her. She looked up at him and said, "I just learned the truth. I wasn't born…I was created. The man who created me is the man who created you! I'm not human! I only look human! And now…the metamorphosis is starting… Stay back! Who knows what'll happen?" As knocked for a loop by the information as she had been, he just obediently backed off.
Giving a cry of pain, she quickly stood up. Cell watched in pure revulsion at the sight of strange ripples moving underneath her skin. Her skin became a bloodless white as it was stretched to its maximum. Cell winced and was glad that he didn't need to eat as he heard the wet sounds of her skin tearing under the pressure of what lay beneath it. Peculiar bulges began to appear beneath her taut skin. Her shirt tore in half and she became a monstrous hunchback as something beneath the skin of her back pushed the skin upward. Her head elongated unnaturally, stretching her hair. Blood poured from the newly created rips, but not nearly as much as he would have expected. It was as if her skin was just a sheath covering…something else. Her hands came up, her fingertips digging deep into the tears in her skin. Cell gave a strangled cry of disgust as she began to peel the splitting skin away from whatever it was that lay beneath it. It tore away easily, as if she were merely taking off a mask. He caught flashes of a milk-white face streaked with a bright red. Slender bloodstained hands showed patches of flesh that was the same chalky color. Flexing her shoulders and leaning her head forward, she purposely created a huge tear in the flesh that ran along her spinal column. She brought her hands around and dug her fingertips into that rip. Then she pulled her hands forward with a savage brutality that startled Cell, and tore away the rest of her skin. Casting it aside like a worn out wet rag, she dove into the stream to wash the blood of her old self off of the body of her new self. After a few seconds, a totally different creature emerged from the water. Cell could see that it was a hybrid like him. But there were differences in its appearance. It was female, for one thing. And her armor was a beautiful deep blue, whereas his was a dark green. She was a bit shorter than he was, and she was quite slender. Her eyes were a coral color, but they were darker than his were, with bluish overtones. She had big glossy black insect wings and a high double crest, just like him. She climbed out of the water, looked up at him from a low crouch and said in Laura's voice, "What was that all about? I feel so weird. And tired…" Not waiting for a reply from him, she dropped down to the ground and immediately fell asleep. As she slept, Cell sat beside her and marveled at how much she had changed. She had changed drastically, and so had the situation that he was in.
After a few hours, Laura awakened. She stood up and looked at Cell. She said, "This is nuts. Everything got smaller!" He replied, "No, Laura, you just got bigger." Then she said, "I feel better than I ever have before. It's as if restrictions set on my body and soul have been lifted. My body feels…different…" Cell walked around behind her and laid a hand on her left wing. She shuddered at the touch, confused, then said; "This is even weirder! I feel you touching me, but I don't have any idea what you're touching!" He smiled and replied, "Simple, Laura. I'm touching your wing." Shrugging casually, she said, "That would explain it-What did you say?" She spun in place, turning to face him. Then she dropped to her knees by the stream and studied her reflection in the water.
After a moment, she gave a yelp and sat down hard. She whispered, "My dreams… All my dreams… Acceptance… Love and happiness… Gone… All of them gone…" Her shoulders shook as if she had started crying. Cell stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on her back. She looked up at him wordlessly, with tears in her eyes. He said gently, "That's not true, Laura. There is one who loves you still. There is one who is mad with love for you." Then he knelt beside her and hugged her. Laura felt absurd and she looked down to hide the fact that she was blushing. He said, "Before, you asked me why I came back. This is the answer." He gently touched her face. She looked up at him. He smiled and said, "You are incomparably beautiful. I love you. Laura, I am in love with you." Not bothering to reply verbally, she hugged him back. This time it was Cell's turn to blush.
Mutually unable to handle romance yet, they turned to other topics. Laura stammered, "I have power now. Can you teach me how to use it?" He replied, "I don't know how to teach you properly, but I know of someone who can. But, before we can go to him, I'll have to teach you how to fly." Laura said, "Cool! Tell me how! Show me!" Cell smiled at her and replied, "Come on, then. Let's get started, shall we?" She hopped up and down a couple times, totally excited by the prospect of being able to fly. Then the lesson began.
A few hours later, dawn had come and Laura was soaring in great circles high above the land, with Cell by her side. She laughed and cried; "I'm flying! Flying, you hear me?" Then she caught sight of her house in the distance. She turned to Cell and said, "I'm going to see my family. They deserve to know what I have become." He nodded and replied, "Okay. I'll wait for you." Nodding back at him, Laura turned in midair and swooped down toward the house that lay so far below them both. Fairly certain that this would be the last time she would go home, she returned to the house as fast as she could.
She landed lightly on the front porch and then surreptitiously opened the unlocked door without making so much as a single soft sound. Before she had left the place as a confused child. Now she entered without a clue as to what she had become. Her parents were at the dinner table, having breakfast. They started at the sight of the inhuman being that had just entered the house, looking at her deep blue armor, her glossy black wings, her high double crest and her coral eyes. After a long moment, Laura waved jauntily and said, "Hey, guys. Guess who?" Her mother whispered, "Laura?" She replied, "In the flesh, so to speak. This is what I have become. I'm moving out, guys." Not bothering to say another word to them, she just turned and walked upstairs. Turning left at the top of the stairs, she entered her little brother's room. He was still soundly asleep, curled up under the covers without anything showing, the fan still on to drown out any outside noise. She turned off the fan and waited for a reaction. There was none. Reaching out to the covered form, she shook the bed violently and fairly yelled at him, "Yo! Dingus!" Her brother reacted to her with equal violence, reaching out to smack her before he even opened his eyes. When he did open his eyes, he screamed at the sight of her and practically hit the ceiling. Laura started laughing hysterically at that. Jimmy fairly yelled at her, "What's so darn funny?" She replied, "Come down, you little twerp. It's just me." He said, "Laura?" She nodded to him and replied, "You had better let me explain." He settled down. She said, "Okay. Do you remember Cell?" He nodded. She continued, "Good. A scientist created him in an experiment. Now here's the kicker. He didn't create just Cell. He created a second creature that was just like Cell. This one was born looking like a normal human, but it wasn't a normal human. It would only look human while it was a kid. When it grew up, it would change to look like Cell." He cut in, "What's that got to do with anything?" She replied, "That second creature…was me." He gasped, then said, "I know you're trying to fool me. Everybody says the Cell Games were a trick and that's just a costume you're wearing." To prove his point, he walked up, grabbed her left wing and yanked. She yelped in pain and jerked it back. That made him pause. She scooped him up in her arms and then said, "I see I'm going to have to prove it to you."
Holding him with one arm, she reached out and unlatched the window. She opened it, and moved the screen aside. Laying her wings flat against her back, she climbed through the window with her little brother in her arms. She paused. "Hold on tight," she said. Then she jumped. Rather than hitting the ground like a brick like he had expected, Jimmy found that they were rising. When he dared to look, they were more than two hundred feet in the air. He looked at Laura's face and she said, "Now do you believe me?" He nodded breathlessly, then asked, "Now what?" She smiled, looked away and said, "I'm leaving, Jim. I'm going to see if I can find someone who can teach me how to control the power I now have." She took him back to his room and closed the window from the outside. Waving to Jimmy, she took off into the sky. He just watched her fly away.
She found Cell, who had taken to chasing clouds to keep himself occupied as he waited for her. He said, "How'd it go?" She replied, "Pretty well. I said my farewells and all. Where do we go from here?" He said, "We will go to Japan!" Turning side by side, they swerved in midair and began to head due west. As they flew onward through the morning sky, the sun at their backs, she said, "Cell, I've been doing some major thinking. I need a new name to call myself by. I'm not really Laura anymore. I just can't be her right now. She was a human. I'm not a human. So I need a new name for myself. And I think I have one. I'm as hard to catch as a shadow is and I'm so fast I look like just a flash of color to people who see me. Put those together and you get my name…Shadowflash!" Cell smiled. She had accepted her new identity and what she had become. She just smiled right back at him, accepting his love for her and adding her love for him to the mixture.
Far away but not too far away, Jadeite sensed this turn of events and smiled. Her parallel universe twin had found love, power and answers for the questions that she had been asking all her life. But the year would be over in just a few days. It was nearly time for them to try to do the dimensional hop that would hopefully bring them all back to their home dimension. She decided to leave the area right away. If she left during the night, no one would notice her as she flew off in her hybrid form. Shifting into her true form, she quickly leapt into the air and flew away just as fast as she could possibly manage to go.
The crew was waiting at the plateau, anxious for the Saiyans, hybrids and Mews to come. Goku looked upward and practically jumped right out of his boots at the sight of a pair of hybrids who were coming in for a landing. One of them was Cell. The other one, a slender little female with deep blue armor, he didn't know. They both walked up closer to him. The female seemed to be rather shy, but Cell just stepped right up to him. Gesturing toward her, he said, "Goku, this girl is named Shadowflash. Shadowflash, I want you to meet Goku." He turned to face Goku completely and then proceeded to tell him the origin story that she had told him earlier. After a few relatively long minutes, he finished up, "…So basically she's been a hybrid for less than a full day. She needs to learn to control her powers. I was hoping you could teach her how to do that." Goku stepped up a little bit closer to look Shadowflash over and suddenly found that he was apologizing to her profusely when she blushed furiously and went to hide behind Cell. Then he voiced his acceptance of her as a student. He would indeed teach her to use her powers properly.
It was right then that Jadeite and the others arrived on the scene. Shadowflash looked at the female hybrid that was leading the newcomers and said to Cell, "Do you know her? She looks awfully familiar to me for some reason." Cell smiled and replied, "That's for a good reason. Shadowflash…she's you." She asked, "What the heck do you mean? I'm me!" He answered, "She's from a parallel universe. Do you remember those rumors you heard about a strange girl who defeated me? She was that strange girl. Her name is Jadeite." Almost as if he had called her down from the air, Jadeite landed beside the two of them. She turned to face Shadowflash and quipped, "It's a pleasure to meet me." It didn't take long for Cell and Shadowflash to figure out that Jadeite already knew all about how Shadowflash had become a hybrid. Despite that, they chatted for a while. After a few minutes of that, Jadeite said, "I have to get going. We're all heading home."
Soon all of the Saiyans and hybrids stood together in a group on the high plateau where the Cell Games had taken place. The crew was all there too. They too wanted to get back to their home dimension. The crew of the other dimension was there to see the lot of them off. They all said their farewells and thusly prepared to part ways for all time. Each of them put hands on the shoulders of two others and concentrated, focusing their powers on creating a dimensional rift that would hopefully transport the lot of them back home. Then the Mews came down to sit on their shoulders, two per person, and concentrated as well. A tremendous rift made of pure white light opened in the clear blue sky that stretched into infinite vastness so far above them. Through it could be seen a different smoky gray sky. The crew of the other dimension watched in pure awe as the huge group of travelers rose up into the air and entered the rift. Then it sealed up behind them.